Beat-em ups are easy to come by, but it’s incredibly hard to find a great one. The current generation has some appealing titles like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Guacamelee, but many other titles don’t stand up to classics like Streets of Rage and Dungeons and Dragons. Dragon’s Crown absorbs the model of fun brawling combat and fuses it with RPG elements and a diablo style loot system. But is this enough for Dragon’s Crown to carve itself a special place in side-scrolling history?
Welcome to a fantastical world filled with adventurers seeking glory and treasure. The king of the realm has gone missing, and you have gotten yourself embroiled in the royal politics. A simple request to find a staff soon spirals into a fight to stop a world-ending dragon from waking up and obliterating the realm. The only possible way to stop this dragon from slaughtering all creation is to find the Dragon’s Crown and use it to control the beast.
A narrator guides the story along as if spinning an epic tale but the story quickly becomes an afterthought. Anyone that’s familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons’ brawlers will appreciate the storytelling. To go along with the main campaign, players will be able to visit the Adventurer’s guild and obtain side-quests to build skill points. Skill points are useful for aggregating integral fighting and support abilities for the class of choice. The classes themselves are varied enough that players will eventually wish to invest in them all. The Fighter is an the tank character, the Amazon is a brutal berserker, the Dwarf can hold two weapons and toss people and objects, the Sorcerer supports her team with food and protection spells, and the Magician can devastate an area with a maelstrom of spells.
The start of the adventure takes a long time to bypass. The first six to eight hours act as a tutorial for the trials ahead. The online portion of the game isn’t available until players have reached the middle point of the title. You can play with your friends locally on the PS3, but Vita owners will have to fight it out alone until network mode unlocks. Once players have stepped out of the kiddie pool, the world expands and the difficulty level spikes to match. Playing alone is simple enough, but with four players saddled up for the adventure… things will get hectic fast. At first, the title will look like a jumble of numbers and effects bouncing on the screen. After an extended playthrough, your eyes will adjust to the madness and you’ll be able focus on the battle on screen.
Unlike many side-scrolling beat-em ups, players need to coordinate with each other to survive the outrageous boss fights. Learning the patterns each of the boss fights is the key to survival; this is especially true after taking on the B paths in each level. The A.I. companions are competent on the normal difficulty while playing the A pathways, but on the B pathways and higher difficulties, you’ll have to bring other players or it’s going to be a frustrating time. Coordinating with other players is where Dragon’s Crown excels and the mechanics are set up so that taking down a particularly difficult enemy feels like an accomplishment.
Smashing in the faces of Orks and Owlbeasts will net your party score points and loot. Score points are Dragon’s Crown’s version of experience points, and loot boosts stats and adds random bonuses like knockback resistance. The gear ranks from S to E, and the better the gear the better the odds of surviving the harsh battles ahead. If the group isn’t earning enough weapons and armor, players can head to the Canaan Temple and pray/pay for better equipment or even a better score tally. Gear is only obtainable from unlocking treasure chests and completing the stage. Items can be found, purchased, or earned by burying the corpses of adventurers found along the way. You could also choose to turn those piles of bones into an ally if you’re willing to a pray the price.
As you get deeper into the title, you will learn how to use rune magic to cast magical boons on the party. Players can interact with these runes by purchasing tablets from Lucain. Combining a specific spell will buff the player, activate golems, or open up secret passages for exploration. Dragon’s Crown allows the player to explore its world by discovering secret passages and solving puzzles to reveal hidden chests. It’s fascinating to drop off the beaten path to discover a wealth of treasure.
Two things separate the Playstation 3 and Vita versions of the game. Activating rune magic, completing mini-games, and collecting hidden items is a much easier affair on the PSVita’s touch screen. The players have to operate the analog sticks to direct slow moving hand to each individual item. The Playstation 3 has the advantage when it comes to a stable gameplay session. The Vita version has heavy framerate drops when a large amount of action takes over the screen. It doesn’t impede the experience but it’s not something that you can ignore.
With those differences explained, the two systems share similar flaws. The most problematic issues stem from the clunky interface when playing with a group. Each player has to enter every store individually to buy equipment, repair, and accept quests. At first, this isn’t a problem, but continuous trips back and forth from battles to repair equipment, learn new skills, and accessorize each player’s gear wears thin quickly. This is a title that’s designed to play with other people, solo play is possible, but combat gets difficult quickly at higher levels. The gear also doesn’t vary much in look, so you’ll find your high level player looking eerily similar to a level four.
The art style is amazing and highlights a vibrant and destructive world with unique takes on familiar enemy types. Vanillaware has outdone itself by constructing a beautiful landscape with explosive combat visuals. Many people have spoken out about the controversial designs for females in this title. Unfortunately, if you have a problem with overly sexualized representations of women, you may wish to steer clear.
Vanillaware has created a must have brawler for fans and those just looking to beat the stuffing out of anything. It effectively adds a sense of strategy and teamwork into a genre about cracking people in the face for a score. It isn’t without its faults, but they are easily overlooked by the stellar gameplay and art style. Dragon’s Crown receives four stars out of five from Geek Citadel. This Crown is definitely worth fighting for.
*This title was provided to us by the Publisher!*
